Wine SIG Holiday Cocktail Tasting

The Wine SIG made sure the start of the holiday season was a festive one at our last gathering of 2016, which focused on wine cocktails. On November 14, twelve lucky members gathered at Jennie Schacht’s home in Oakland to taste some unique holiday wine cocktails, researched and prepared by Jennie herself. Our gathering was a great introduction to some lesser-known drinks that utilized white, red, sparkling and fortified wines. All of the cocktails we tasted featured wine as their main ingredient.

Some examples of different types of wine cocktails are:
• Aperitivo/aperitif
• Sparkling wine or champagne cocktails
• Wine spritzers
• Sangria, mulled wine and other wine-based punches
• Classic cocktails with wine replacing the spirits
• Cocktails using fortified wines such as sherry, vermouth, brandy and sake
Our welcome drink was a Lavender Cava Sparkler, made with lavender harvested from Jennie’s garden that she then made into a simple syrup and topped with sparkling wine. It was definitely a delicious and different cocktail!

From there, we tasted a Cranberry Vanilla Wine Cocktail made with white wine, Vino Francesca made with Rosé, a red wine spritzer called Claret Cup, a classic sherry cocktail in the Sherry Cobbler, and finished with Pink Champagne Punch, a sparkling pink wine cocktail. With the exception of the welcome drink, which was conceived by Jennie, the recipes were sourced from various online sites.

During the tasting, we snacked on a few canapés prepared by SIG members and as we finished our last wine cocktail, we went to enjoy a full spread of tasty bites. The Wine SIG will meet again in the 2017 and we look forward to another year of great programs!